Week 48 Colossians 2
Before long I see that this is a pretty complex chapter and since one of my goals in reading is understandability I’m wondering how I can decomplexify the section.
I check for paragraph divisions. One version has 7 paragraphs and another had 5. I need finer divisions. I look for independent phrases – short ideas with something to say. I find ~36 of them. Here’s a for instance:
Paul is concerned about his readers: that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
A single sentence made up of several connected – but different – phrases or ideas. I see that:
• Paul wants reader’s hearts to be encouraged
• He wants them to love each other
• If they love each other they’ll gain understanding
• They’ll also start to know God’s “mystery”
• God’s mystery – Paul says – is Christ
• And the mystery that Christ can offer people is wisdom & knowledge.
One complicated sentence. Breaking it down helps a little.
When I’m reading there’s a principle I come back to: if something is too unmanageably big for me in-the-aggregate then I can try disaggregating it.
The goal of disaggregating isn’t disaggregation. It’s goal is to help me understand what Paul’s saying – finessing things to catch-his-drift. (But keeping in mind that I have to let Paul say what he’s actually saying.)
Note: quote from Colossians 2:2-3 (ESV)